Darth Revan - Continuity Messup

Warning: Spoilers to Knights of the Old Republic (X-Box Bioware game) are here; course, the game is 9 years old now, so you know, statue of limitations and all that.

The basics of Darth Revan in our game is pretty well established; Darth Revan was, until the current Emperor, the most successful Sith Lord of all-time, handily nearly eliminating the Jedi Order in the 2nd Sith War (aka Jedi Civil War) before somehow being taken and laid to rest in Korriban about 4000 years ago.  He's a pretty powerful, dark side user in our game, one to be feared and a front runner in the overall game last final boss.  And this is insured by what the great Wookiepedia says

"Revan rejected the darkness of his past, turned Shan—whom Malak had broken to his will—back to the light and vanquished the reigning Dark Lord, playing his part in the battle that brought the war he had instigated to a close........the canonical ending features his return to the light side"

Well...........crap.  So, for those out there who are confused, this post is meant to clarify why our game is going aganist the actual continuity, have a brief rundown of who the bloody Darth Revan, why is it that those who know him think he's very much an interesting figure, and how this game treats him.

Revan's background is not really known; we don't know what world he is from, how old he is, what his real name is, or anything about what he did before the Mandalorian Wars.  Revan came into prominance at the start of the Mandalorian Wars; the Mandalorians were doing what they did best, which was attacking, raiding and destroying weak planets.  Think of the Mandalorians as slightly smarter Vikings, only if they were usually on the move with the boats.  You would think that whole planets being destroyed would be a concern of the Jedi Council.....but the Council wanted to part in a Outer Rim matter that could hurt the safety of the Core Worlds via the Jedi leaving.  Revan thus discovered and made it public knowledge of the Cathar's homeworld destruction by the Mandalorians, forced the council with the PR to do a "small intervention" and then personally motivated thousands of Jedis (or a third of the entire order) to join him in his battle.  So before he even fought he's very much solid in political manupilatiions and leadership.  The Mandalorians would soon find out he was not just a talker.

Revan is considered by the Mandalorians to be the single biggest reason the Jedi and Republic won the war; Revan won the war in a year, killing the Mandaolian leader and their homeworld using, what else, Mandalorian tactics of quick, decisive and bloody conflicts.  He and his army then out into the Great Unknown to chase down the last remaining remnants of the Mandalorians....and would come back a year later with an even huger army of Sith, with him now Darth Revan.  Armed with the Deus Ex Machina the Star Forge (a factory that just magically makes Star Destroyer like ships using the power of a star, with no explanation at all of HOW that could possibly work....) Revan soon began taking over the Outer Rim.  The hero had now become the villain.

A Year or so into this New Sith War/Jedi Civil War, Revan was (Shock!) backstabbed by his padawan, and left for dead.....though he was barely alive.  The Jedi Council then did what all people mind powers do....they wiped out and changed the memories of Revan, slowly but surely rebuilding him to be their hero once again.  Revan begins to help the Jedi take out the Sith, and begins his path to redemption, being the key to the war.  Eventually though, Revan learns that he has been mindwiped.

And here it is where it gets tricky.  Darth Revan's story is detailed throughout Knight of the Old Republic (KOTOR 2), the Xbox game, and as a Bioware game, you have a choice to be good or evil.  I played through the good ending, found it to be lacking, and then watched the dark side ending on youtube, and how much better the production value and intent of the game was.  The good side?  You get a medal.  Yay.  The bad side?  You take over a fing universe!  Plus, when we fast-forward to KOTOR 2, the synopsis of the game is that you play as the last Jedi fighting to defeat the Sith.  Now, I have not played KOTOR 2 but the synopsis made it seemingly clear to me.  I put the two facts together to make the conclusion that the "canon" ending of KOTOR was Revan taking over the galaxy.

But it's not.  Revan saves the galaxy....but 5 years later, it's on the verge of destruction.  Wha???  Turns out, there's another Sith empire just biding its time (it was responsible for corrupting Revan, you know!) and the empire kills Revan sometime during the 5 year time period and kills nearly all of the Jedi Order.  So...what does this mean?  It means Revan gets a crappy ending in KOTOR 2 for one thing (and partially explains why no one likes KOTOR 2) and makes him much less of a competent character.  But another, it means we can't  in "canon" have Revan pocessing Jack; he's a good guy.

So that's why the mistake was made: I made an incorrect assumption.  But the alternative is too hard to make real in our game, and the "canon" version of events is, let's face it, stupid.  Really, we couldn't have Revan be, you know, a decent Sith Lord, and take care of the Jedi Order himself?  Revan is such a strong influential figure throughout KOTOR, and the fate of the universe literally hinges on what he believes is right.  And we're supposed to believe that unnamed character X killed him?  It would be like Yoda walking into his house and being blown up by a bomb planted by Roklo.  Just ridiculous.

Luckily for my game, I do have control: therefore, my game's canon is this: Revan is known to have taken over the galaxy, but records have been purposefully deleted a few months after the begin of Revan's rule; all that is known is that the records after 10 years Revan began his reign show a Jedi Order painfully low on numbers, Revan having a died a couple of years back and a Republic that is badly weakened but still has spirit.  But if you're wandering how Revan died....if we look at his history....you would have to say via his padawan.

So Jack, watch your back, because Revan's  definitely looking at yours....

If you have any questions, clarifications, comments on Revan, feel free to say so!